Princess Aline and the Groblins

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Movie
German title Princess Aline and the Groblins
Original title The Princess and the Goblin
A hercegnő és a Kobold
Country of production United Kingdom , Hungary , Japan
original language English
Publishing year 1991
length 82 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director József Gémes
script Robin Lyons
production Robin Lyons
music István Lerch
cut Magda Hap
synchronization

Princess Aline and the Groblins (original title: The Princess and the Goblin ; Hungarian title: A hercegnő és a Kobold ) is a cartoon by director József Gémes from 1991. The British - Hungarian - Japanese co-production is based on the influential Fantasy - novel the Princess and the goblin by George MacDonald from the year 1872nd

action

Princess Aline lives in a castle in the mountains, where she spends most of the time with her nanny Lotti. One day she is pursued in the forest by terrifying creatures and the miner boy Curdie saves her with his song. Back at the castle, Aline makes the acquaintance of her mysterious great-great-grandmother, who is sitting at a spinning wheel in the top tower and who helps her several times during the course of the story. When Curdie is captured by the nasty Groblins (goblins), Aline rushes to his aid with a magical thread. The Groblins then break into the castle and try to kidnap the princess. When the plan fails, they retreat to their caves and flood the castle, but ultimately fall victim to the water themselves.

production

Cover of the novel from 1920

For this project, producer and screenwriter Robin Lyons turned to Hungarian director József Gémes , who was best known for his historical cartoon Daliás idők from 1983. The Princess and the Goblin was created on a budget of 10 million US dollars as a co-production between the Hungarian Pannonia Filmstudio , Lyons Siriol Films and the Welsh television station S4C and the Japanese broadcaster NHK . Much of the animation was done by Siriol in Cardiff , making the film the first cartoon from Wales. In addition, some well-known British actors could be won for the synchronization , including Roy Kinnear , who died three years before the film was released.

Lyons largely stayed true to the 120-year-old novel by the Scottish author George MacDonald with the script . However, there are some minor differences in action compared to the template. In contrast to the book, the people at the royal court are initially not aware of the existence of the goblins. In addition, the princess only meets her great-great-grandmother after she knows about Curdie and the goblins and has no contact with the miners at any time. In addition, you keep a cat named Turnip (in the German dubbed version Robin) company. From the goblin prince Harelip ( harelip ) Prince Froglip (Frog lip) and Princess Irene was carrying in the German dubbed version of the name Aline. The expression “Groblin”, which is also only used in the German version, is a new word created from the English Goblin and the German adjective “coarse”.

synchronization

role Original speaker German speaker
Princess Aline Sally Ann Marsh Katja Primel
King papa Joss Ackland Randolf Kronberg
Curdie Peter Murray
Curdie's father William Hootkins Martin Keßler
Lotti Mollie Sugden Brigitte Mira
Great-great-grandmother Claire Bloom Anja Kruse
Leprechaun king Robin Lyons Elmar Brandt
Leprechaun Queen Peggy Mount Beate Hasenau
Prince frog lip Rik Mayall Wolfgang number
Mump Roy Kinnear
Glump Victor Spinetti

reception

The film premiered in Hungary on December 20, 1991. In the United Kingdom it ran for the first time a year later in cinemas and from 23 September 1993 also in Germany . Bärbel Schnell wrote in the children's and youth film correspondence that the fairy tale had an ambivalent effect in its mixture of “shrill comedy and pastel-colored pathos”. The animation is sometimes "bumpy, but stylistically independent - and always works best when it delves into the world of goblins". She complained that the script no longer relied on its imaginative characters and described the additional storyline with the grandmother figure as "superfluous mallet pedagogy". She praised the fact that the cartoonists did not follow the Disney standard. The title character is not a “well-formed Snow White ”, but a red-haired, “ Anglo-Saxon grimace”.

The film distributor , shirtale Communications , brought the film to nearly 800 US cinemas in June 1994. There played The Princess and the Goblin 2.1 million dollars , of which a 450,000 opening weekend, and thus fell far short of expectations. The film could not hold its own at the box office against the mighty Lion King , who started just a little later. In addition, he received mostly negative reviews. In addition to the script, critics particularly criticized the one-dimensional characters and below-average animation. Derek Elley wrote in Variety that while the appearance and color scheme are solid, a lack of detail and inbetweens lead to jerky movements. The characters are not interesting enough to hold the audience's attention , according to Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times . Distributor Shirtale was desperate to lure people into the cinema and asked well-known critics to watch the film with their children. For example, the opinion of Michael Medved's daughter (“I absolutely loved it!”) Was printed in newspaper advertisements.

In a retrospective review for his Animated Movie Guide in 2005, Jerry Beck awarded two out of four stars. He felt that the film would not achieve its full potential despite a first-class director and enchanting medieval history. The uneven, stiff technique and unimaginative narration resulted in a bland, unsatisfactory film for all but the youngest viewers.

Despite everything, the film was able to win three prizes. It received the Award of Excellence from the Film Advisory Board and the Dove Seal of Approval from the Dove Foundation - both for family friendliness - and won the award for the best children's film at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Bärbel Schnell: Princess Aline and the Groblins. In: Kinder- und Jugendfilm Korrespondenz , issue 55-3 / 1993. Online , accessed March 7, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b c d Jerry Beck: The Princess and the Goblin. In: The Animated Movie Guide. A Cappella Books 2005, ISBN 978-1556525919 , pp. 213-214 (English).
  3. ^ The Princess and the Goblin. Toonhound, accessed March 7, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Princess Aline & the Groblins - Cast. IMDb , accessed March 7, 2019 .
  5. ↑ German synchronous index: German synchronous index | Movies | Princess Aline and the Groblins. Retrieved March 7, 2019 .
  6. ^ The Princess and the Goblin. Box Office Mojo , accessed March 7, 2018 .